Newbie Questions
Forum,
I'm a total newbie. I've made 6 loaves that I had to throw away,
Yet, I learn someithing new each time.
And Now I've got some random questions.
1) What does yeast do???
Does it just aerate the dough?
Or does it do more like change the dough's structure.
2) Does dough keep rising? or does it stop.
E.g.: does the yeast reproduce or does it just eat?
3) If when proofing yeast, I'm to leave it in water for 10 minutes
or until the water begins to foam. What happens if I leave
the proofing fluid for 20 or 30 min? Is the yeast worse off,
do I need to add more yeast or does it not matter? Again,
is the yeast reproducing or just eating and dieing??
4) Can I fix fallen dough?? E.g.: the recipite calls for letting the
dough rise for 2 hours, folding it and trasfering it into a
9 x 5 bread pan and letting it sit for another 2 hours.
BUT, I dropped the dough when moving it to the bread pan
and now the dough is 1/3 its previous height. Can I leave
the dough in the bread pan for 4 hours or 6 hours to get the
intended hight and airyness???
5) If a recipite calls for whole milk and I use 1% milk, can I
expect the dough to be more or less airey? Are there other
changes, e.g.: sweeter
6) Is there a difference between covering dough with an airtight
plastice wrap versus a breathable cloth??
Any thoughts would be wonderful!
John.
In Annapolis, MD